Title: once upon a time he wanted to revolt
Fandom: Transformers Prime
Summary: Knock Out had reasons to join the revolution against Cybertron's system. Pastfic.
A/N: So, after "Crossfire", and nellasaur's latest fic, I feel better about starting to share this. It's been saved in my files for a while now. 'Castless' more of a ref to Dragon Age, but I found the concept interestinng to reform a bit and apply to TFP. Crossposted from my fannishcodex tumblr.
Part 1
adopted (human equivalent: a matter of days)
"Harmonix?"
The green tri-wheeler continued her drive to the medics' quarters while answering Pinfist's comm.
"Yes, Sir?"
"Come by my office, will you?"
"Right away, Sir," she said in a calm and chipper voice, while inwardly she moaned. Today had been too long: several gladiators offlined and then dismantled; an equal number saved or tended to; one she had to euthanize; Sideswipe almost lost his head, did just lose a replaceable arm instead, but he'd have to wait until tomorrow for the parts to come in. All the medic wanted now was to return to her small apartment shared with her bunkmates and recharge for a whole cycle.
Harmonix made a U-Turn and headed back to the arena. Best not to keep Pinfist waiting.
###
Harmonix felt her spark plummet when she saw the small protoform tube on Pinfist's station.
Even seated, Pinfist looked down at the green femme. The black-and-orange mech wrapped a claw around the tube-like container, then passed it to his medic.
"Came in today. He'll be your apprentice."
"Of course Sir," Harmonix said, smiling (long practice made sure it even reached her optics). She gently took the protoform's tube, and peered inside. Through the glass casing, Energon fluids and protective wiring, she could see a vibrant red finish. But the whole sparkling was curled up tight, seemingly trying to avoid as much light as possible. It shuffled around sleepily.
"Record your consent here," Pinfist said, offering a data pad and pointing to the line next to 'Guardian.' Harmonix shifted the protoform tube to one arm, the other signing her name on the pad.
"Sir, have my bunkmates been informed already-?"
Pinfist waved a careless hand over his shoulder, his back already turned on her. "Yes, and you've been reassigned new living arrangements. It'll just be you and the whelp for a while."
"What's his designation, Sir?" Harmonix half-hoped he didn't have one already, that she could name him-
Pinfist scanned the data pad. "'Knock Out.'" The crime lord grunted, amused. "Wouldn't expect anything less from his progenitor."
Harmonix's curiosity was piqued. Apparently Pinfist was at least somewhat familiar with the sparkling's progenitor, could the same be said of its procreator? But she knew better than to ask directly. Regardless, it would serve as juicy gossip later.
"I'll expect a report on his status by the end of the week."
"Yes, Sir."
The only dismissal she would get, Harmonix left with her new charge.
rookie (human equivalent: five-year-old)
"How come you don't have any legs, Harm? You always roll around." The red sparkling asked while he helped ready his guardian's tools for the cycle's bouts. He nodded to her waist, where it remained a whole trunk all the way down to her singular wheel.
"Everyone's different, Knock Out," she replied distractedly, deftly arranging her tools while scanning the arena's schedule today.
"Sideswipe's fighting today!" The sparkling said eagerly, stabbing a small drill at the name Harmonix had been looking for.
"So he is-KO, don't wave that drill around, finish setting up."
"I'm almost done..."
"Is almost 'now?'"
Knock Out huffed and went back to meticulously ordering everything.
When that was done, Harmonix began to roll away.
Knock Out trailed after her. Harmonix's optics narrowed at him.
"Now stay here-"
The sparkling hesistated, but continued to follow her.
"Can't I watch, please-?"
"Not this time-"
"'This time?'" The sparkling huffed. "You never let me-"
"Right now, you serve better staying at your post and keeping your comm on."
"But all the other apprentices get to go-"
"They're older. And not everyone goes at the same time, Diode's there at her post now-"
"Can't I watch Sideswipe at least-?"
"Knock Out, do not make me repeat myself."
The sparkling didn't huff, he knew that tone of voice. But he did slump at his station, arms folded, pouting.
"Focus, keep your comm on," Harmonix warned him tightly as she left. Knock Out rolled his eyes, but did straighten up slightly.
The other apprentice, Diode, stared at the sparkling a moment, before finally saying, "Harmonix is just worried you'll lose your nerve."
"I would not!" Knock Out snapped, whirling on the taller femme.
"You would," Diode evenly said, "because you're still new at this."
"I do fine in here already..." The red sparkling growled mutinously.
"Yeah, you do, I'll give you that; but no one's perfect-"
Knock Out bit back the urge to protest very childishly and loudly that he was, even if he really didn't like the infirmary and the work that much.
"-and you did flinch, already, when that warrior's neck couldn't support the head anymore and snapped clean off-"
Damnably, Knock Out swallowed hard, cringing at the memory.
"Relax, half-pint, that's just the way things work with rookies," Diode dismissed with a wave of her digits. "I vomited after seeing a gladiator disemboweled, if that makes you feel better."
It did, a little, but the younger sparkling wasn't about to confess he had some really nasty nightmares that only Harm knew about-and maybe that was more incentive for her not to let him watch the bouts. Knock Out slumped down again at that observation.
"Knock Out, get the anesthetic ready!" His comm crackled with his guardian's urgent voice. The sparkling immediately retrieved the chemical. The guy Harm brought in wasn't so bad, the sparkling had seen worse.
###
The sparkling broke out of recharge with a gasp. Chest pounding, Knock Out shot a look at his guardian.
Harmonix remained undisturbed on her own berth.
He sighed, relieved. Knock Out had not wanted to wake Harm up again, especially since she'd plopped into her berth as soon as she had showered and given him his eve ration.
The day had been long and exhausting. Sideswipe had been hurt real bad, and that had frightened Knock Out. He liked his guardian's lover, and had never seen him so injured before. The sparkling had also seen some other things that equalled or overpowered the sight of that gladiator's head just giving out and the head falling off, though Harm had chided the failure to provide proper support...
The sparkling jumped off the berth and rushed out of their quarters. It wasn't enough, Knock Out left the apartment entirely. After some trial and error, not to mention some clandestine advice from Sideswipe, he'd finally figured out how to bypass the lock the housing system set up. He had already sneaked out and broke curfew a couple of nights previously, though this was the first time he'd done so without the thrill of exploration coursing through his processor.
The Medics' Circle was always crowded, it was built as such, and still new additions were pushed into it. But the sparkling felt particularly crowded tonight, and growing bored; the realization that there wasn't much left to explore in the Circle was starting to creep up on him. Knock Out was fairly certain he'd already gone to the high border wall and across its entire circular length, even seen the guard towers.
Transforming into the new vehicle mode he loved so much-Harm had made a wonderful fuss over it when he was old enough to shift-Knock Out raced down the narrow streets. He urged his wheels to go faster and faster, he loved the roar of his own engine and the wind, the rush of the air current and the crunch of dirt beneath...
The sound of a jet flying too low made something deep in the sparkling's chassis grow cold.
"Halt," ordered one of the flyer guards, and Knock Out reluctantly and awkwardly skidded to a stop, almost crashing into another apartment's wall.
"You're breaking curfew, little one," the guard said, still a jet and hovering over the sparkling.
"Obviously," Knock Out muttered, then stiffened as he realized what he just said.
The guard finally transformed, the sudden weight of her feet as she landed on the ground making Knock Out bounce slightly.
He tried not to shiver as her blue optics sternly looked down at him.
"Transform, I will walk you home."
The sparkling cringed, but obeyed.
The guard gestured. "Lead the way."
Knock Out did, and the sparkling found the march in the dark severly awkward and unpleasant. When not looking despondently at his pedes, he kept looking back to make sure the guard was still there, so quiet was she.
Some apartment windows were lit, a few grown-up medics watching. Knock Out's humiliation grew when he heard the snickering, and he glanced up to find it was Diode and the other adolescent apprentices. The sparkling quickly looked back down, flushing a red that did not go with his finish. He hated being the absolute youngest in the Circle at the moment; it would've been nice if he wasn't the only sparkling...
"...Are you gonna tell my guardian?"
They were before his and Harm's apartment now.
"Of course. You shouldn't have been able to even get past the lock. She'll have to be informed, and a technician will come by tomorrow to refortify your lock."
The pit of Knock Out's chassis plummeted at losing that freedom he'd found. He was certain he wouldn't get past the new lock this time.
The guard activated the intercomm, and Knock Out flinched at Harm's irate voice crackling out.
The apartment entrance hissed open, and Harm looked down at her charge with every sign of disapproval and sleep-deprived anger. Knock Out thought he would be ill.
The conversation between the guard and Harm passed over the sparkling's head in a blurr. When the guard left after scheduling the technician's appointment with her, Harm's optics flickered up and down Knock Out's juvenile frame.
"You're filthy, go wash up."
Hastily obeying, Knock Out quickly showered. When he stepped out, still dripping wet, Harm tsked, but not over the water on the floor. "You missed a spot. You missed several." She flicked a digit at one of the dirt-marked areas of his frame, and the sparkling tried to stay perfectly still.
"A medic needs to be clean. Dirt and other foreign particles can still increase the chance of malfunction in patients." Shamed, the sparkling looked down at his pedes, flushing deeply when he found their tips and heels were still dirt-stained. "Go back and do it again, thoroughly this time."
Silently he did, and afterward Harm inspected him again, this time declaring her satisfaction.
They went back to their berths again, but Knock Out could not get back to recharge. He still kept seeing the mess in the infirmary that day, and a gladiator that kept screaming and screaming, no matter the amount and quality of anesthic given him-and he wasn't that hurt, and he'd won. But he'd been new and it'd been his first kill, and Knock Out had heard he was one of the Taken, a Casteless sparkling pulled from the outside streets. Knock Out dimly heard someone chide whoever the warrior's trainer was for failing to mentally prepare him, another saying there was no real mental preparation for one's first kill, and that she'd seen a lot of new warriors traumatized by their first time...
The sparkling put his hands over his audio receptors as the memory of the screams grew louder.
When Knock Out finally started to recharge, the alarm blared. The sparkling groaned, turning over and curling into himself.
"Absolutely not, Knock Out, you're not sleeping in, not after you made yourself stay up all night, and you will be alert at the infirmary, do you understand?"
"I don't want to go," the sparkling growled, refusing to look at his guardian.
He shouted when she yanked him off his berth.
"What you want isn't an option."
"How come?" Knock Out yanked his arm away, stumbling as he did so and landing on the floor. Harm did not take his arm again, but did kneel down at his side. "How come I have to be a medic? I hate the infirmary!"
The tri-wheeler gave the sparkling a hard look. Then she asked, "Did you have another bad dream last night? Is that why you got up in the first place?"
The sparkling would insist he did not pout, but he still looked to the floor, wrapping his arms around his knees and gathering them to his chest.
Harm sighed, then gently took the sparkling in her arms. Knock Out determinedly stayed stiff in her embrace, not giving into it.
"Darling, it's just the way things are. You were born to this, and it's there you'll stay."
"You didn't stay in the mines," the sparkling pointed out, his voice bordering on petulant. The medics and the gladiators and the guards and others had gossiped about it, and Harm had told him some stories about it, her former 'life' assignment as a miner's medic.
"One, that was a unique case; two, it wasn't by choice; and three, it was just a change in area-I'm still a medic, as I was born to be. Very few Cybertronians ever make a Transition..."
"What about that guy yesterday? Everyone was saying he was a Casteless before-"
"And now he is a warrior. But again that wasn't by choice, the first step was not his doing. He is one of the Taken after all, if you did hear correctly."
"I did," the sparkling murmured. Harm sighed, and drew Knock Out closer, and this time he did lean against her shoulder, closing his optics.
"Stay awake," his guardian said curtly, and his optics snapped open.
Harm put Knock Out down and made him stand up. She then took him by the shoulders, still kneeling before him as she said, "You are new to this, and growing into your station can be difficult. But I promise, you'll get used to it in time."
She then pressed a quick kiss to his forehead and shooed him out of their apartment.
###
"Scrap!"
"Language."
Knock Out panted, his optics finding Harm sitting upright on her berth, awake. The sparkling grumbled as he rubbed the exhaustion out of one of his optics. "I don't want to recharge ever again," he muttered lowly.
"No chance of that; you're a growing sparkling, you need your rest." Harm silently regarded Knock Out quietly for a time, then said, "Have I ever told you about D-16?"
"That was the mine sector you worked in," Knock Out murmured in a bored voice, glancing away and focused on some dirt he just noticed in his knee joint. He must've missed it before when washing up before recharge. He drew his knee up, picked the grit out.
Harm snickered. "The person, not the sector."
The sparkling blinked. He looked up from his knee. "Someone was named D-16?"
"Yes. And thanks to him, I Transitioned into the gladitorial infirmary, and was able to care for you..."
Knock Out listened with rapt attention to his guardian's stories of D-16, miner-turned gladiator.